3/19/2006

This is something interesting I found today following a link over at Is America Burning. Appearantly, there has been a resurgence in violence in Iraq. Every week since September 2003. Someone at Make Tea Not War who had heard the phrase thought it sounded familiar so they Googled the phrase and found that the media has used the phrase quite frequently when discussing the situation in Iraq. Iraq's former Prime Minister, Ayad Allawi, has stated that Iraq is at the start of a civil war. His assessment was based on the warring factions of Shi'tes and Sunnis now fighting in that country. The Bush administration, always truthful and straightforward and honest with the American people, tried to put an optimistic face on the situation over there. Dick Cheney blamed the media for the public perception of Iraq with it's vivid depiction of killing. He also said that his statement that we would be "greeted as liberators" were basically accurate and reflected in reality. This from the man who stated ten months ago the insurgency was in it's "last throes". And this brings to mind the alternate reality that the whole power elite live in. In their eyes, the economy's doing great, when in reality, the US is losing more manufacturing jobs (but creating more jobs in the service industry that it can classify as manufacturing)while miring us all further in debt by extending the debt limit, taking the budget surplus they started out with and running it into a record setting deficit. And that doesn't even take in the costs of the war in Iraq, which was supposed to pay for itself. Yes, violating the Constitution to defend it is the standard order of these people, as breaking laws become legal when the President does it because unlike you or I, he is above the law. Donald Rumsfeld said today that pulling out of Iraq would be the same as handing over post-war Germany to the Nazis, a silly claim because the Nazis, like the neocons, were trying to take over the world, while the Iraqis are trying to take over....uh, Iraq. He also referred to the insurgency as "terrorists", when in fact it is the US that is dropping bomb and killing civilians in Iraq.He also stated that "History is a bigger picture, and it takes some time and perspective to measure accurately." Which means it will take a couple more years of failures in Iraq before they pull their collective heads out of their asses. Although they would never admit to it publicly, privately, our own generals have confessed to Chuck Hagel that Iraq is in the midst of a civil war. But don't expect the Bush administration to admit it. A criminal rarely confesses to his crime.

Blogger was down for hours, but thank you to those that emailed about it. The outage affected many different blogs, I was able to read but not say anything. In a way, lurking can be good.

It amazes me the way they use language. Did you ever hear Albright talk about the obligations for 'genocide' versus 'conflict' or 'civil war'? One requires an intervention, but when we don't want to intervene, well, just don't call it Genocide then! Same with Civil War, occupation, etc. they think that if they control language they can control the ideas and obligations associated with them.

Same with Civil War, occupation, etc. they think that if they control language they can control the ideas and obligations associated with them.

They used to say this was the way they controlled Reality. Now everybody knows that's just how they shape their own delusions. They are living in their own little buble. See no evil-hear no evil- speak no evil. Out of office and out of power, they would be consigned to live on a funny-farm. As it is, we and the whole world are living in the madness of a very unfunny funny-farm. Wake me up when this nightmare is over!

...as breaking laws become legal when the President does it because unlike you or I, he is above the law.

I probably shouldn't point out (but will anyway :-)), that this point of view does not apply to all presidents. The neo-cons justify this as a "war powers" issue and use the perpetual state of war to extend their influence, cutting out Congress and the judiciary. Clinton, of course, would not enjoy this level of immunity, as we were not at war.

Even more interesting is the relationship between Bush's polling numbers and the increase in violence. As far as the violence goes, the spikes get higher and higher, while each dip is higher than the dip preceding it. At the same time Bush's polling drops to new lows, but never peaks to where it had been before.

Of course someone has to say the obvious. Clinton--who was the best Republican president we ever had--was saddled with a reactionary Congress which was far to the right of any Republican Congress I can remember. And I go back to Hoover, although I was a little young at the time.

I don't know how old you people are but I remember Eisenhower's warning about the Military Industrial Complex. I did not take it serious at the time, but when I look at the schmucks who are running the government in Wasgington today it seems relative.

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